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Department of Archaeology

 
Read more at: Anthropogenic Wetlands and the Long Transition to Agriculture in the Levant (Anthropogenic Wetlands)

Anthropogenic Wetlands and the Long Transition to Agriculture in the Levant (Anthropogenic Wetlands)

The project will develop an innovative new model to examine the pivotal role of anthropogenic wetlands in the long transition to agriculture in the Levant. Remarkably, while this transition has been explored in some detail, we still do not have a good grasp on the long-term developments and causes of the origins of agriculture, mainly due to a lack of direct botanical evidence.


Read more at: Capital economies in ancient Mesopotamia: reconstructing palatial cuisines and agricultural systems at Carchemish, Niniveh, and Dur Kurigalzu

Capital economies in ancient Mesopotamia: reconstructing palatial cuisines and agricultural systems at Carchemish, Niniveh, and Dur Kurigalzu

The Late Bronze Age (LBA) and Early Iron Age (EIA) in southwest Asia saw major socio-political transformations, including the rise and fall of the Hittite, Kassite and Neo-Assyrian empires. Alongside socio-political and economic instability, climatically induced droughts are among the most frequently cited causes for the collapse of these states. However, direct evidence for the impact of droughts on agricultural systems is virtually absent from these periods, rendering hypotheses that see climate change at the heart of the crises hypothetical.


Read more at: Increasingly Anthropogenic Landscapes and the Evolution of Plant-Food Production (HE-Interactions)

Increasingly Anthropogenic Landscapes and the Evolution of Plant-Food Production (HE-Interactions)

The aim of H-E Interactions is to investigate how increasingly anthropogenic wetland landscapes, and the reliable resources within those environments, influenced the evolution of plant-food production and the origins of agriculture through the Final Pleistocene and into the Early Holocene (ca. 23-8 ka cal. BP).


Read more at: Tracking the Roadways Across Iranian Lands: A Geospatial Reconstruction of the Persian Royal Road(s) and the cross-cultural link between East and West during the Achaemenid Era (6th-4th century BCE)

Tracking the Roadways Across Iranian Lands: A Geospatial Reconstruction of the Persian Royal Road(s) and the cross-cultural link between East and West during the Achaemenid Era (6th-4th century BCE)

PersianTRAIL is a research project using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and historical-archaeological data to reconstruct the Persian Royal Road (PRR), a key infrastructure of the Achaemenid Empire (6th–4th century BCE). The project examines factors like topography, resource distribution, economy, military logistics, and environmental constraints to understand the empire’s strategic planning.